Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Dao
Hi Robert, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve been in the Austin area for a little over 10 years ever since graduating from Texas A&M in 2014. Coming out of college, I knew I wanted to work in the fitness and coaching industry, having come from a lifelong sports background myself. Over the past several years, I’ve worked myself through the industry starting in a small studio setting doing lots of group classes, moving on to the large corporate setting for several years. There I really learned how to be a good one on one coach while being exposed to a very wide variety of clientele and was able to kind of refine my skills as a trainer so to speak. After several years of working in a corporate gym and building up a client base, I moved on to working for local gyms for a little bit more freedom and the ability to branch out a bit. Recently, I’ve moved on to mostly doing freelance and contract training work since I’ve built myself a nice base of clients, allowing me the flexibility to be able to spend some more time at home with family and pursuing my own interests outside of the gym!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Just like any industry, coming in out of college can be a bit of a learning curve. I’m lucky that my degree is in the field that I’ve built a career for myself in, and that gave me the base of knowledge to be successful, but going to school doesn’t necessarily teach you how to be a good coach or how to sell yourself to potential clients (and how to maintain relationships with those clients), so that is something I’ve had to learn on my own and from the endless list of fantastic other trainers I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the years.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
My work primarily centers around 1 on 1 private personal training and athlete strength and conditioning. I have experience working with a pretty wide variety of clients and needs including weight loss, general fitness, strength and muscle building, athlete strength programs, corrective exercise, and exercise with aging populations, but my personal niche is working with endurance athletes. My personal athletic background is as a runner and triathlete so I love working with runners, swimmers, cyclists, and triathletes to manage their strength programs outside of their regular mileage. Outside of that, I do a little bit of small group and semiprivate training with clients that either have similar goals and programs or come in as an existing family/friend/team type of group. I currently do mostly freelance training both in home and in gym at a couple locations in the Leander/Cedar Park area of town and do some online coaching both for strength programs and for coaching runners and triathletes for race plans.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
A favorite childhood memory of mine is taking annual summer camping trips to Colorado growing up. For a string of years we would go for several days to a state park outside of Colorado Springs and spend the days exploring trails, being in nature, and enjoying getting away from the city. Those trips had a pretty lasting effect on me growing up as I ended up spending most of my teenage years in Boy Scouts, and still have a very deep love for getting out in nature – especially into the mountains. Every couple years I’ll still drive up to Colorado and spend a week mostly off grid doing some camping, fishing, and climbing as many mountains as I can fit into a few days!
Pricing:
- 1 On 1 Training – $75-100/session
- Small Group/Semiprivate – $30-45/session/person
- Online Coaching – $75/month
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.robertdaotraining.com/
- Instagram: @dao_training
